Behind The Shadows
by shiningdarkness11
Summary: What lies behind the shadows is something darker than the darkness itself. Nothing can withstand it's power, and once it's out, it cannot turn back. Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew.
1. Chapter 1

Behind The Shadows

**shad-ow** **\ 1:** partial darkness or obscurity within a part of space from which rays from a source of light are cut off by an interposed opaque body **2:** a reflected image **3: **shelter from danger or observation **4 a:** an imperfect and faint representation **b: **an imatiation of something; COPY **5: **the dark figure cast upon a surface by a body intercepting the rays from a source of light **6: **PHANTOM **7 **_pl_: DARK la **8: **a shaded or darker portion of a picture **9:** an attenuated form or a vestigial remnant **10 a:** an inseperable companion or follower **b: **on (as a spy or detective) that shadows **11: **a small degree or portion: TRACE **12:** a source of gloom or unhappiness **13 a: **an area near an object: VICINITY **b: **pervasive and dominant influence **14: **a state of ignominy or obscurity

Chapter One

The darkness showed no mercy to Ichigo on that lonely walk home. Because she had picked to stay late and help clean up Puddings mess, she had also chosen to walk home even later and not even begin to think of how dark it could become that night. Yes, there were streetlights, but not enough to her liking at all. Not many different thoughts roamed in her head, just the normal ones of Masaya and how stupid and rude Ryou was to her that evening at work...no, everything felt the same. In fact, it felt so normal and calm that she decided to hum as she thought of her date tomorrow with Masaya.

It was only until she opened her eyes when she noticed.

"Wow, it's so...strange down this road at night...I guess I never really noticed it before," she looked around, trying to find the meaning to this feeling. She looked up where a streetlight usually was shining over her. "Oh...it's broken..." The light flickered. Ichigo shrugged, and although the slight feeling of insecurity stuck with her, she hummed along, trying to forget it. She had an important day tomorrow, nothing could slow her down...

...or so she thought.

Funny thing about the darkness; no matter how much you try to block it out of your mind and ignore it's secrets it always manages to keep up with you, reminding you that it's there, and anything could be inside of it.

Ichigo wandered down the same path as always, but this time she was more alert. Something was wrong, she was sure of it now. She began to walk a bit faster. Just a bit. Ghosts weren't her thing, and she didn't want to get freaked out by one tonight. She wouldn't.

**Crash**

She yelped and quickly turned around. Nothing. She stepped forward. _Crunch..._She looked down at her feet, broken glass on the sidewalk. She looked up. Another streetlight just went out. Well, it practically was shot out from what she heard.

"No Ichigo, it's nothing. It's just a coincidence and nothing tonight is different from any other night I walk home," she re assured herself. "Nope everything is fine. In fact, I'm gonna skip home!" she put on a fake smile and turned and began to skip down the sidewalk with her eyes closed. She skipped right past a streetlight, and began to hum.

**Crash**

This time she screamed. She couldn't help it, it was just all too freaky now. She stopped, slowly turned around, eyes still closed, took a deep breath and...opened her eyes to find yet another broken streetlight bulb on the ground by her feet.

Someone was following her. Someone could be throwing rocks at the lights after she passed them just to freak her out. But it had to be someone who knew her...someone who disliked her. Yes, she was catching on. It had to be someone like that. Could it be Ryou?

"Haha very funny Ryou. I'm not afraid of that!" she looked off into the distance behind her. Nothing stirred. "Ryou? I know you're there..." her voice echoed down the empty street. "Ry-"

**Crash**

She squeaked and turned back around to face the path to her home, to see another light broken. No one had thrown anything, or shot it. She was staring straight back there...she would have seen...

So if it wasn't a person...it had to be a...

"GHOST!" she yelled and began running towards her house.

She was running so fast, she couldn't see anything. Not that it would be any different, the lights were breaking faster now, as if they were trying to keep up with her. It wasn't too far now...yes...comon-

"Ow!" she had tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. "That hurt!" she rubbed her knee where she had fallen.

"You shouldn't be running..." a voice came.

"Huh?" Ichigo looked around. Where did that come from? "Did someone say something...?" she studdered.

"You foolish little girl." the voice was very high pitched and squeaky like.

"H-hey! Wh-where are you?" Ichigo was still on the ground, looking around like crazy. Her heart was pounding.

"Would you like to see me?"

"Y-yes! Show yourself!" Ichigo held her mew mew pendant tight in her hand, ready for any attack now.

"As you wish..."

Ichigos breaths were short, her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it through her chest. What was going on? She could almost barely see anything. Was the thing coming? What was it?

The last few streetlights went out. Now it was complete darkness. All that was there was Ichigo, still on the ground, closing her eyes tight trying to hold back a scream.

"Tick"

Ichigo yelped a little, feeling something brush against her shoulder.

"Tock"

She thought of Masaya, and was hoping with all her might he would come and everything would be okay again.

"Tick"

Ichigo heard heavy breathing coming closer to her, and footsteps. Too bad she couldn't see. It was also very bad that she was in shock, for she couldn't remember what to say to transform into a mew mew. She was just too scared, everything was wrong...

"Tock"

Ichigo had to at least try to see something. She opened her eyes.

"Time's up."

(scream)

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Look for the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Behind The Shadows**

Chapter Two

"What was that?" Mint asked herself, having heard a scream outside. She peered out her window for a second, then shrugged and sat on her bed, bored. A sigh came to her lips. No ballet practice tonight, and no one was home either. Baya was out doing errands, and Seiji had left for college a while ago. But she didn't care, or wouldn't let herself care. She didn't need anyone, not anyone. Except for maybe her dear onee sama Zakuro. Then she would be fine. No mew project, no cafe mew mew, no Ichigo or Lettuce or Pudding to annoy her anymore. Just her, ballet, Miki, and her onee sama. Ah, life would be good if that was true. Yet she did care for her brother a bit, but he had already left, so she couldn't change that.

"Ah...so utterly bored..." she said quietly. "It is unlikely for a girl of my standards to be acting this way. I must consume my time with _something..._" she looked about her big bedroom. Closet. Dresser. Vanity. Window. Balcony. Bed. Nothing looked interesting. "Perhaps some tea will calm me down and I can get to sleep early..." she got up, and walked sadly to the door.

_Creak..._her closet door opened a little.

She turned around, just to see what the noise was. She saw the crack and the door open a bit. "For goodness sakes Miki. Why are you in there?" she walked quickly over and opened the closet door and turned on the light to illuminate her huge walk-in closet. Nothing. "Miki?" she looked around the closet.

Behind her, a shadow ran across her room.

_Click, _**SLAM.**

"Hey!" she heard herself say as she was pushed into the closet, which was now dark for the light was also mysteriously shut off. She had been pushed in by the door, which was literally slammed shut.

"This is ridiculous...there's no such thing as ghosts," she said as she reached for the handle of the door. She hated to admit it to herself, but she was scared. How could the door slam and the light turn off if no one was home but her and Miki?

She felt the cold, smooth texture of the glass handle. She gripped it tightly and-

_"I don't think so," _a small voice said from a corner of her closet.

Before Mint could even question who or what said that in her mind, she felt the doorknob change into something else...something sharp...and-OW! She let go quickly, feeling blood dripping from her hand which was so painfully cut now.

She held in a cry, clutching her wounded hand. "Wh-who are you? What do you want?" her voice was shakey. She had just remembered she had left her mew mew pendant in a special jewlery case on her vanity. Oh she wanted so bad so be able to run out and grab it and kick whatever that thing that was in the far left corner of her closets butt.

_"You should really learn how to fix that,"_ the voice came, only this time it was way closer.

Mint backed up so her back was right up against the door. "F-Fix what?" she was terrified. If she tried to get out again she would be hurt even more. The huge gash in her hand was already killing her.

_"It's really easy to tell when you're afraid of me. You should really fix that." _Now the voice was just to the left of her, about 4 feet away.

Mint tried reaching for the light switch, which was just above her to the right. Almost had it...

_"Stop trying to ignore me!"_ The voice said angrily, and grabbed Mints wrists and pinned her against the door.

Mint was terrified. She couldn't tell who or what was holding her down, it was still way too dark. All she heard was breathing, and her heart pounding. Then she heard the faint sound of Miki barking in her room. Mint tried to scream, but couldn't. She felt as though she was practically being choked to death, yet nothing was touching her neck at all...not yet that is.

_"Do you know that Ichigo girl?" _The voice breathed. "Y-yes..." Mint managed to whisper.

_"You're going to see her soon. Sooner than you think." _at that point, Mint felt the cool metal texture of a finely sharpened blade against her neck...

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

You probably know who will go next.


	3. Chapter 3

**Behind The Shadows**

Chapter Three

Lettuce awoke from a terrible nightmare. She was breathing heavily, and was sweating, too. It was the worst dream she had ever had before. She sat up, clutching a pillow. _It wasn't real _she told herself. She sighed and let herbody fall back on the bed, eyes closed.

It was the same dream she always had. Well, ever since Ryou had entered her life. Ryou...she felt strange mouthing his first name for she had been used to saying 'Shirogane-san' for quite some time now. It felt nice to say Ryou though. She felt closer to him...

His smile, he was always so kind to her...she giggled and her memories of her haunting nightmare had vanished.

Whenever her nightmare would re-occur (which it had been alot throughout the week), she would simply repeat those prosedures, thinking of _him_, that is. She actually didn't mind the bad dream as much, now that it was over for that night, because it always seems more satisfying to think of Ryou when she needed it most, then to just think of him for the heck of it.

And she couldn't wait until after school tomorrow. That's mostly what gets her through the day; remembering that when the last bell rings she gets to go back to Cafe Mew Mew, and see Ryou. But not just that, she gets to see her beloved friends. Her friends...they were so kind to her. Well, mostly Ichigo and Pudding were. Mint usually seemed to always be her snobby self, but Lettuce still loved her, just because deep down, Lettuce knew Mint cared for her and all the others. Zakuro was usually quiet, but Lettuce also knew that behind her lonely eyes there was a shining heart that cared for all the other mews just as much as she did. Lettuce smiled at the thought of her great friends, she was so lucky to have them.

She looked over by her window. Her curtains blew through the cool breeze that let itself through her opened window.

Lettuce shivered. It was way too cold. She got up and walked towards her window, holding her arms from shivering. She moved the curtains out of the way with her hand, and gripped the top of the window tightly and pushed down. She looked up, out the window. And that's when she noticed it.

There, staning on her porch, right outside her window, was the shadow from her nightmares.

She was sure of it. It had a white face, yet no eyes or nose or mouth or any other of those features. It was just simply white, as though an artist was drawing it yet left the face blank and went off, forgetting his creation and how beatiful it could have been...if he had remembered just to give it a face.

Lettuce then suddenly remembered what happened in her dream. She was so caught up earlier in her thoughts of Ryou that she had forgotten...until now.

The dream had began with her sitting in a pitch-black room. She found herself in a chair, when all of a sudden she would hear singing. Very quiet singing, and the song sounded as though it was in a minor key, which made Lettuce believe whoever was singing it was sad. Then, a white face would slowly drop fown from the ceiling. It looked as though it was a mask, but then it would grow a body, which was covered by black cloakish looking thing anyway. Lettuce would then find herself afraid in her dream, and begin to run the opposite direction. Then, she could see the cafe in the distance, and Ryou in front with all the mews around him. She was yelling out to them but they couldn't hear her. Just then she would see the white-faced shadow pop up from behind Ryous shoulder. Lettuce would scream, but Ryou did nothing. The shadow acted as though it was teasing Lettuce, and would tie ropes around Ryous neck and act like it would kill him by almost hanging him in her dream. Lettuce couldn't bear this, and would break down crying. And the ending of her nightmare scared her the most. She would be back in the room, alone and in the dark. The shadow would appear in the corner behind her, and would scream at her once. Only once. It was a high pitched scream, one that would make anyones ears burn and hearts crack. Lettuce would be so terrified that she would wake up, but now this wasn't a dream. The shadow was outside of her house right now.

The strange thing about this shadow, was that it appeared to be quite solid, and would move across her front yard about 3 yards everytime Lettuce didn't look. Lettuce blinked to make sure she wasn't dreaming, and it would be closer to her house with every blink.

Lettuce thought about telling her parents, but she knew what they would say. They would tell her it was only in her mind, that it was her imagination. But Lettuce knew it wasn't a fake this time. Its white face was staring right through her soul. She could feel it.

She turned around to make sure her door was shut. It was. She looked back out the window.

The shadow was gone.

Lettuce sighed in relief. She jumped back in bed, still being a bit spooked.

It was not until she heard the faint singing from her dream begin to play on a music box in her room.

She jumped up. That was not her music box...where was it even coming from? She tiptoed towards the noise to find it coming from her closet. She opened the closet door quickly. Nothing was there. But the noise could be heard in it...she glanced around the room again. She noticed her dresser was where she had put her glasses, and went over there and grabbed them and quickly put them on. When she looked back up into the mirror that was on the other side of the dresser, she was the shadow standing behind her. She yelped.

"Wh-who are you?" Lettuce said without thinking.

_"You should know me by now, I've been in your dreams for a while now, haven't I?" _The shadow whispered.

Lettuce closed her eyes. This wasn't real...nothing was there...

_"Oh dear Lettuce...little kind, sweet Lettuce. I'm only here to make the pain go away..."_

"What pain? I love my life, there is no pain in it!"

_"Are you lying? I believe you are. No ones life is perfect."_

"The only pain in my life is you and your stupid nightmares!"

_"So do you want me to leave, or will you?"_

"You should leave!" Lettuce was forceful with her words, yet tears were in her eyes and flowing down her cheeks. "Right now!"

_"Now Lettuce, it is not fair to always get your way." _The shadow moved closer. _"What about what I desire? Does that matter at all to you?"_

"N-no! Go away!" Lettuce yelled as she swiftly turned and tried to push the shadow. Of course, as you can imagine, she fell right through it, onto the floor.

The shadow dissapeared, but only from sight.

_"You believe you have the strength to harm me? To even TOUCH me? How dare you even try."_

Lettuce was on her floor, unable to move, as though something was pressing down on her or the pull of gravity was making her believe she was heavier than she really was. She couldn't move at all. She was wimpering softly, tears spreading onto the ground. She had just enough strength to lift her head...only to see the shadow above her.

_"Enough with this foolishness. The game is over, and you're not the victor."_

What happened next was all too fast for Lettuce to even try to remember. A rope was quickly placed around her neck, and she was lifted up slowly, then quickly dropped. It was over.

At least she didn't have to worry about those nightmares anymore.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Next Victim: Pudding Fong


	4. Chapter 4

**Behind The Shadows**

Chapter Four

She knew she should be in bed. It was after 11, and usually she would crash way before that. But not tonight. Tonight she was hooked on sugar, as she would more than occasionally find herself to be, just usually not this late.

Pudding lay happily on the couch, her eyes closed but her body fully alert, for she was sucking on candies every few seconds. She was joyfully humming. She was happy. And why shouldn't she be? Her siblings were healthy, happy, and hyper (just like her...), and she managed to make lots of money that week as well. She loved to work, because she knew it would gain her money, which her household always needed. She also loved being a mew. Hanging out with her friends and saving the day! Pudding definitly could get used to being one of the super heroes.

The only bad part of the deal was fighting her friend, Tar Tar. She loved to call him that. It just bugged him so much, she couldn't help herself. She didn't want to fight him...but she had to.

She sighed. No, she can't let bad thoughts come. No.

Well, her bad thoughts ceased. In fact, all of her thoughts stopped. When she heard footsteps running downstairs into the small basement of the house.

She sat up. "Heicha?" she asked quickly. She knew she had tucked in each of her little siblings, but that never stopped Heicha before. The littlest girl would come out to lay by Pudding every once in a while. Not the boys, the boys slept very soundly, and Pudding knew that.

But when Pudding called for Heicha again, and got no answer, she began to wonder.

She leaped up from her seat, and ran (just for the sake of using energy) over to her siblings room, only to find each of her younger brothers AND sister cuddled safetly in their beds. No one was missing.

Her stopped for a minute there. Someone was in her house...

She quietly closed the door, and turned in the direction of the stairs, leading to the basement that she was already afraid of. Now it would be even more scary, knowing someone was hiding down there...in the dark...

But she had to. She had to see who it was, or what is was. It could just be Tart, like that one time she found him hiding behind her couch, and he said he didn't mean to telelport there, he just 'accidently did'...yeah, sure. And right after that he yelled at her for being a stupid monkey girl and left with the silly blush still on his face. Well she had to go. She tried to think of a happy song in her mind...and took the first creaky step down...then jolted down the rest as fast as she could to avoid being too scared to go at all within the fifth step. She turned on the light, and looked around.

Nothing looked different. Everything was in it's place. Well, it was mostly boxes. Full of memories which she liked to remember but not revisit, because of the tears that woud show. She shook her thoughts and reminded her self the reason she was there at all: the footsteps.

She walked around a little, within the little space she could even walk in down there. That's when it began.

First it sounded like a faint russle of a plastic bag, and she traced the sound all the way to the far corner, behind a box. She placed her hands on the box, meaning to push it aside, expecting to see a rat or a squirell. Well, before she even pushed it, she heard a noise again.

Only this time, it was a loud THUMP.

Pudding jerked her hand back in suprise, and accidently tripped back on a cord of some kind, falling onto the cold, cement floor.

Being a skilled gymnast, she jumped back up...

...just in time for the lights to go off...

...and the door to slam.

Pudding yelped at the slam, and ran over to the light switch. No luck.

She then ran up the stairs, only to be magically tripped again by some invisable wire, and fall back down all of the steps.

_"Why so scared?" _a voice hissed.

Pudding sat up, looking around, panting and heart beating fast. Where was that voice coming from? It sounded like it was coming from up...

Just then, the white outline of the blank face (much like in Lettuces dream) fell onto the ground from the ceiling, in front of Pudding.

Pudding didn't know what was happening. She didn't even know what she was doing, or thinking, when she reached for the mask...

_"...go ahead, I dare you." _A voice boomed.

But by then, Pudding had already touched it. It was ice cold, but she gripped it tightly and turned the mask around to the other side slowly, about to discover the secrets behind the shadow...

...when she was blown back against a stack of boxes, held there by an unknown force. She screamed, yet it felt like no one could hear her. In fact, it seemed to her like this wasn't her house at all.

She had dropped the white mask as she was being pinned against the boxes. It lay on the floor. And she watched it as it lifted up on it's own and grew a dark, black body.

_"You think you can get away with anything just because you're a cute little kid. Think again."_

Pudding closed her eyes tightly, holding back a scream. She didn't know why, but for some reason she couldn't scream.

_"Tell me. Why should I spare you?" _asked the shadow.

Pudding was shaking. She didn't know what to say, or what the shadow even meant.

_"Why should I spare you when I killed most of the others already?"_

Puddings eyes opened wide. "Who did you kill!"

_"You'll see soon."_

Pudding watched as the shadow pulled out two blades. The the shadow sort of teleported up to her, closely, so she could hear breathing.

She yelped as one knife cut deep into her right wrist. The pain shot through HARD. Pudding closed her eyes. She still couldn't move, and having a wrist slit was also leaving her stunned.

_"Don't take your eyes away from your pain. Watch your blood drip down and remember how this happened..."_

With another quick, swift movement her left wrist was also cut open. Pudding was now only half-concious, staring blankly and cringing in pain as she watched her very own blood drip and fall onto the ground. She let out one faint scream, and let her tears flow down off her cheeks. She was still pinned to the wall, but after a while of bleeding and suffering, the pressure the shadow had put against her body was released, and her limp body fell on the cold ground, into the large puddle of her blood.

And that's when the lights turned on.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Bye bye, Zakuro.


	5. Chapter 5

**Behind The Shadows**

Chapter Five

It was late, so naturally Zakuro was in bed. She had a big day tomorrow, a photo shoot and then to the cafe. She was sound asleep, in her comforting dream, lost in a world much more unknown than ours, that of which we go in our dreams is entirely a mystery. To us, at least. Zakuro was thinking about her busy life. Being a mew AND a supermodel was not easy. But she somehow over the course of days she had chosen to except her fate of being involved in the mew project, and focused on the main goal of it all: to rid the Earth of the aliens.

It also wasn't all bad. Along the way she had met some friends. Wow, friends. She had never actually had those. She was always just so busy with her career, that she hadn't had the time to actually meet people personally. Except for little Momoka. That was an exception, though. She had somehow gotten mixed up in the game for a second there, that it just fit together. Momoka loved her so much...and it was hard not to return those feelings. So she didn't fight back.

That night it had been so dark...and cold...even in Zakuros sleep she got a chill which she could not shake. It was the sort of chill where you knew something was wrong, but couldn't place your finger on it, because the darkness would drown out all the hope for clues.

But there was one exception...

Zakuro awoke from her sleep from a reason unknown. It happens to everyone at times. She just remembered hearing a slight sound of a bell in her dream, and woke up, just like that.

She sat up in her bed, clutching her blankets from being cold. That's when she got that chilling feeling...something wasn't right...

She looked around, and found the very source to that feeling.

There, standing in front of her mirror, was Momoka. Just staring into the mirror as though it was a hole to a different dimension and it was calling her in. She had a blank look on her face, and her skin was pale as snow. She was wearing a long purple dress which spread across the floor.

"Momoka?" Zakuro said, still sleepy. "What are you doing here?"

No reaction at all from Momoka. Not even a twitch. Momoka kept staring.

Zakuro was now waking up even more. "Momoka," she said a little louder, hoping to get the little girls attention.

Nothing.

Zakuro was getting frustrated. Why wasn't she answering? Zakuro then noticed something in Momokas hand, but she couldn't tell what it exsactly was because a long sleeve was going over it.

Then Momoka slowly turned her head towards Zakuro.

The chilling glare shot through Zakuros heart like an icy spear. Zakuros heart rate picked up, now noticing something rather odd.

Momokas eyes were red.

"M-Momoka?" Zakuro said, her voice beginning to become shakey.

"Hello Ms.Fujiwara," Momokas usual little girl voice was now changed to a raspy voice, mixing with her voice to create a very unpleasant sound. "Look what I found for you." Momoka held up what was in her hand that Zakuro was trying to see last; a knife.

Now Zakuro knew this wasn't really Momoka, she wasn't blind. Someone was controlling here, posessing her. Zakuro had to do something. She got out of bed, and kneeled down so she would be able to pick Momoka up. She wrapped her arms around the little girls body. She tried to focus on putting her in a room, and letting her sleep there and in the morning she would be okay...it would all be over.

"W-What are you doing?" Momoka asked. "Put me DOWN!" Momoka shoved her knife into Zakuros back, and Zakuro winced in pain as she dropped Momoka to the ground, and fell back onto her bed.

Zakuro lifted her head up to see Momoka on the bed too.

"Are you paralysed? I do hope so," Momoka said.

"Momoka...don't let it control you..." Zakuro managed to let out. And with that, Zakuro kicked Momoka off the bed. She kicked as hard as she could at that moment, hoping to knock whatever was in Momoka out. Momoka screamed, and fell onto the floor. "I'm sorry...Momoka..." Zakuro said quietly.

_"Oh how touching..."_

Suddenly the shadows white face and body lifted up from where Momoka had been laying. It stared at Zakuro with it's blank face, and Zakuro wasn't able to move, for the knife was in her back.

_"Miss Fujiwara, I believe your time is up." _The shadow announced.

A pillow from her bed was placed over her head by the shadow, and Zakuro screamed, but was barely heard for she was drowned out by the pillow going over her mouth. The pillow pressed down so hard and tight around her head, face, and neck, that she no longer could breathe, and she knew that's exsactly what the shadow wanted. Zakuro tried to struggle with the pillow using her hands at first, trying to pry it off, but the shadow must have seen, for she then found her hands tied to the bedpost, and her feet tied to the bedposts at the end. She was being smothered, she knew this was the end.

In no longer than 5 minutes, the pillow was removed, and Zakuro was dead.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Who first, Ryou or Keiichiro? Hmm...After them it's the aliens turns.


	6. Chapter 6

The plot of this story: For me to know, and you to find out.

**Behind The Shadows**

Chapter Six

It was another night of hard work over with for Keiichiro. The girls had left a few hours ago, and he had decided to spend the remainder of his night watching the computers, making sure no traces of chimera anima would come up at night or mew aqua would be detected. It was a boring job, but he had nothing else to do. He already finished making the cakes and cookies early for the cafe tomorrow. He thought he might as well stand guard, and go to bed when he felt tired.

Ryou had went to bed earlier, which was strange, but Keiichiro excepted it. Looking at Ryou that night made him truly realise how much Ryou had grown since that fateful day when Ryou's world crumbled. He was only 10 years old...it was unfair for a 10 year old to lose so much within such little time. Keiichiro made it his duty to replace all the bad memories with good ones, in the time that he had. Now Ryou is no longer a child, but sometimes it is still hard to think of him as an adult. Keiichiro had cared for him for so long that it was hard, but he had no other choice then to let him go, and go on with his life.

Now his life revolved around five young girls, and somehow in the game the fate of the entire world had mixed itself in, and as time passed, the danger grew.

He glanced at the computer screen. Nothing new. As usual.

Just then, he heard something. He couldn't tell what the noise was, though. He turned around. There, tied to the ceiling and swinging down to the floor, was a rope of barbed wire.

"What the..." he was alarmed, and looked up to see where it was coming from. It was tied to a nail in the ceiling.

"Strange." He walked towards it, a bit scared. It wasn't there before, was it? If it was, he certainly did not notice it. He felt a strange small gust of eerie wind blow through the room as he reached for it.

The slam of the door and the light bulb shattering was right on cue right when he thought he had a hold of the barbed wire.

_"Mr. Akasaka, I believe your time is up."_

"Wh-who's there?" Keiichiros voice was shakey, un-sure of what exsactly to do. He wondered if he should scream, but the door slamming already made enough noise, so if Ryou had heard it he would have been down by now. Since he wasnt there, he must not of heard. And if he didn't hear that, he wouldn't hear a scream.

_"All this time you have been in my territory."_

"What are you talking about!" he tried to fight through the darkness, but it was no good. He couldn't see a thing. He couldn't feel a thing. The computers shut off when the light bulb shattered, so all sources of any light in the room were gone.

_"Throughout your life you have been a mere toy in the big plan. You have sat in the shadows of this room, watching others fight for what you believe in."_

Keiichiro could hear wind blowing in different directions, as if something was flying across the room every second. "What are you talking about? Who are you!"

_"Do you dare to stay in the darkness, Mr. Akasaka? I don't think it wise,"_

He ran for the door as fast as he could, yet it was locked. He raised his fist to bang on it, hoping somehow Ryou would hear him. But, just before that, he was blown back on the ground, not able to move any longer.

The white head of the shadow drifted up above his head.

_"For this is my place to hide. The darkness is my place, and you, are a trespasser."_

Keiichiro could not only not move, but he could also no longer speak. He tried to fight, but it was no use. It was over, he knew it.

_"I know what you're thinking. You're asking why. I'll show you why..."_

Suddenly, a picture of a dead Ichigo lit up on the wall to the right. She was bloody, and her face was pale. Then, another picture of Mint came next to it, her head no longer attached to her neck, blood everywhere. Lettuce's picture was next, and she was shown hanging from her bedroom ceiling fan. A picture of Pudding came next, her wrists slit open and she lay dead in her basement floor. Zakuro was shown in her picture pale and lying on her bed, with a cut up Momoka next to her.

The pictures haunted Keiichiro. The mews were gone. He was next.

_"I hope you don't forget me. And I hope you tell the others that they will not be alone for long."_

He could suddenly feel his senses again, but only for a breif moment. For right then, the barbed wire was wrapped tightly around his neck, and pulled until the skin broke and blood flowed. He fought it for about a minute, then his body grew limp, and he was gone.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Ryou: Dead.


End file.
